The Chesterfield Company: Salford maker profile

In brief. The Chesterfield Company is a trading name of Forest Sofa Ltd, making Chesterfield sofas and chairs at Newbury House, Ford Lane, Salford, which it says it has done in Manchester since 1951. Frames are solid seasoned beech built in-house, seats are serpentine-sprung, and Chesterfield designs are buttoned and studded by hand. Leather comes in five grades from rub-off antique to aniline; every frame carries a 15-year guarantee and made-to-order pieces take four to six weeks.

Making in Manchester

since 1951the company’s own date; family run

Workshop & showroom

Ford LaneSalford M6 6PD, one building

Frame

Solid beechbuilt in-house, 15-year guarantee

Lead time

4–6 weeksthen delivery within 10 working days

Trustpilot

4.7862 reviews, seen 29 Oct 2026

Where the sofas are made

The Chesterfield Company works from Newbury House on Ford Lane in Salford, a Manchester postcode (M6 6PD) a couple of miles west of the city centre. The building is head office, factory and showroom in one: the company says frames are built in-house there, and the showroom, with around 38 pieces on display, is reached by stairs on the floor above the workshop. It opens seven days a week, with a half day on Friday, and has free parking. The company says it has been “manufacturing in Manchester, England since 1951” and describes itself as a family-run business and one of the UK’s longest-running furniture manufacturers; no founder is named on its site, and the founding date is the company’s own statement rather than one we could confirm in a public record.

The legal entity behind the name is Forest Sofa Ltd, a private company incorporated on 5 July 2004 and registered at the same Ford Lane address, whose Companies House classification is “manufacture of other furniture”. Forest Sofa is a member of the British Furniture Manufacturers association, whose directory lists it as a made-to-order manufacturer supplying independent retailers and interior designers in the UK and internationally.

How a Chesterfield is built at Ford Lane

The construction follows the pattern described on this site’s 2000s to today page, with one period-specific feature: hand buttoning. The frame is solid seasoned beech, which the company says comes from sustainable European forests and is cut and assembled in the Manchester workshop. Serpentine (zig-zag) springs are fixed individually across the seat — the modern successor to the Victorian coil, lighter and lower, which is what lets a Chesterfield sit as low as it does. Over the springs go the layers of padding, then the cover. On the leather Chesterfields each button is pulled through by hand to form the diamond pattern the Victorian page describes, and the stud nails along the arms and front rail are fitted by hand on every Chesterfield design.

Cushion interiors are offered in foam, fibre and feather-wrapped options; fabric cushions are reversible, leather ones are not. The company’s production manager, Jason, is described as a 25-year upholsterer who still works on the shop floor, and the company says the production team has been together for many years.

Leather and fabric

The Chesterfield Company sells its leather in five tiers, which match the grades explained on the 2000s to today page: an Antique rub-off finish; a corrected full-grain called Dune; three aniline ranges — Old Vintage Aniline (Apache, Mistral, Tradition, Vintage), Premium Aniline (Crystal, Roma, Tempesta, Tribe) and Timeless Aniline (Amalfi, El Paso, Nubuck, Old English). The company says its premium leathers come from European tanneries and that it selects from “the top 5% of hides”; its product-build page also refers to fifty years’ experience with UK hides. No tannery is named. Leather is hand-cut from full hides. Alongside leather there are fabric ranges across “over 70 leather and fabric options”, and the company will upholster in a customer’s own cloth provided it meets the upholstery fire-safety standard — the 1988 regulations explained on the 1970s–1990s page.

The range, and what it descends from

The core of the range is the deep-buttoned Chesterfield — the Claridge, which the company describes as based on the original Chesterfield design, and more than thirty variations on it: high-backed, straight-armed, vintage-finished, cushioned and contemporary. Around that sit the forms this site traces elsewhere: Queen Anne-legged wing chairs and a scroll-wing chair that descend from the early Georgian easy chair, a spoon-back chair from the Victorian drawing room, tub chairs, an Art Deco club sofa, corner and chaise versions, and sofa beds. The company adapts existing designs to order — size, legs, piping, studding and fillings — rather than building from a blank sheet.

It sells direct, from the showroom and online, and offers trade pricing to interior designers and hotel operators. Its environmental policy says products are made in Salford rather than imported, that offcut timber, cardboard and plastics are recycled, and that it uses zero-solvent adhesives.

Guarantees, lead times and delivery

Every frame carries a 15-year guarantee; leather and fabric are guaranteed for one year, with an optional five-year accidental-damage cover sold per seat. Made-to-order pieces take about four to six weeks in production, followed by delivery within ten working days; express stock lines are quoted at two to three weeks. UK mainland delivery is a flat charge, excluding the Scottish islands and Highlands; collection from the factory is allowed; the company notes that warranties do not apply outside the UK mainland, though it says it has shipped as far as Japan, the USA, Australia and Indonesia.

What customers say

On Trustpilot the company holds a TrustScore of 4.7 (“Excellent”) from 862 reviews, 78 per cent of them five-star, on a profile claimed since 2014. On the environmental and manufacturing claims above we have relied on the company’s own pages; we found no independent press reviews or named awards, and the company’s “worldwide acclaim” is its own description.